Model Train Journal

Found this article interesting on Mr. Sofue. https://magazine.oscaleresource.com/books/wuub/#p=30

Yes, Mr. Sofue was a very talented individual!

Dan Weinhold

Yeah, Sofue was a very talented builder with an almost magical reputation.....a great Japanese builder.

But, Tad Daito is no slacker either. He has some great videos on U-tube and some fantastic running locos. If a loco won't easily pull 100 cars it's got to be rebuilt.

I've been communicating off and on with Tad for maybe 15-20 years. I contacted him last summer when I picked up a custom (Japanese) built #50 Turbine and he knew all about it and the builders. He sent me photos of a hand built 8500HP big blow turbine he's been building for many years. It's a copy of another Big blow he has that was built by a fellow name Bill Melis. Mr. Melis was a very talented O scale UP modeler in Utah back in the day and this turbine took 1std place honors with the UPHS back in the early 90's. I'll post some photos once I upload them to Shutterfly.

Here are the promised photos. The unpainted version is the one Tad has been building for some time. He says the Bill Melis model is a little too wide and he wants to fix that......maybe so, but having owned 3-4 OMI 8500HP turbines since 1993, when I reserved my first new O Scale model, Bill's turbine looks outstanding and especially for being all hand built. It would be interesting to learn where it is now!

It has the KTM built model look, where the edges are sharper and the brass is thicker and the overall construction heavier. MY KTM DD40 looked like this (gone now) and my Japanese custom manufactured #50 turbine looks this way too.

Thank you for sharing. I believe that I have an unpainted Veranda Turbine made by Mr. Melis. The trucks were USH with a gearbox on each axle.

Also thank you for sharing more info on Mr. Daito. His youtube videos are very interesting.

Well this is awesome

I have a Mikado he built, has a wood case with a number on it. I had some finishing work done to it and I painted it weathered it. Fabulous model I was told it was built 1992 or so. The guy I got it from traveled to Japan often 70s - 00s and bought it while on a trip there, we traded work for it among other things. No way I could have afforded to buy one of these from a BT source at 10k or more.

Untitled by Erik C Lindgren Fine Art, on Flickr

Here is a Sofue FEF2 I owned a decade or so ago, but at $7500 I really couldn't enjoy/justify it. BT sold it for $10K, so I got my money (25% commission) back. Once in a lifetime purchase.

Your Veranda sounds very, very cool and I'd love to see some photos of it. I'd rather have a Melis built turbine than an OMI, because like my #50 it's very special, not just a nice model.

That FEF2 is spectacular. The amount of work that went into it really makes it kind of a masterpiece, worthy of fine art, IMO.
Thank you for sharing. I surmise that it ran as well as it looked?

It ran well, but like all Sofue models it runs slower than typical KTM built models. I guess this was one of the changes he wanted to make.

Notice the small hex head steel bolt on the valve gear. I am all out of those fine bits (Coles Power Models had them for decades, and Moody before that).

Micro Fasteners did them in brass a while back, at a tenth the cost of Walthers "Hobbits." But they were discontinued, and now Micro Fasteners is in limbo. I could use a new source of steel 0-80 hex heads.

All of those models are jewels - the KTM USA models went well beyond my desires for fidelity and complexity - but still - what neat examples of the art.

I don't have any of the hex head bolts or other real builder needed scale items, but I did load up on Scale Hardware NBW, rivet and other parts that are no longer available. Sign of the times I'm afraid.

On that note fellas, We are dinosaurs and our world has died. Unless a twenty-something starts up a miniature fastener business soon, this is it. That twenty-something unlike you guys will never own a home and be buried in debt and student loan debt and never be able to pay it off, let alone be able to be a proprietor or small business owner, support a family, basics… they call these people “Side Hustlers” now, all over social media, let’s demonize fair market capitalism and sustainability too the young, shall we. Social security like healthcare is now nonexistent for anyone born this side of the millennium; Neo Feudalism is here and we “boomers” will pass along and the young shall inherit the fallout of a new set of rules. Nobody wins in this game but the 0.00009%.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hustler

Here is my note - every day I wake up, stagger into the living room - The Greek brings coffee, and I reflect:

I was born into the American middle class (albeit in Java). I was never hungry - went to the best schools.
Rode behind steam - saw TV coverage of a man on the moon.
Served in the Navy - never had to fire a shot at anybody.
Navy paid for three degrees and an Airline Transport rating. Among other things . . .
Had several fascinating jobs - best one was flying airliners. Next best was teaching law.

Never got truly wealthy, like a lot of folks I hang out with. Not truly talented at anything - struggle with the guitar.
My photos, unlike Erik's, are uninspired.

But I do get to fly every day - often a WWII biplane - and pretend to be an aircraft mechanic (and then at home a model train mechanic).

But I am truly grateful - when I take that last train west, it will be with a smile.

Day by Day, Bob, yes, it’s a wonderful life. I too have had it good, no complaints, and I’m never going to be rich, at this point that’s not important to me. But I do have concerns for my 8 and 11 year old. Keeping them from the wolves won’t be as easy as it was for me. Thank you Bob, for your kind support of my stuff.

bob turner wrote:Here is my note......

Life is what you make of it. Opportunities present themselves and you have to see those for what they are, grab them while you can, while always planning for the future that you control. Relying on anything or anyone else is just waiting for a bus that never arrives.